FEMA Winlink Exercise
Amateur Radio Emergency Service
918.232.8346
n7xyo@arrl.net
Here are the instructions for the FEMA R4/R6 RECCWG exercise May 31-June 1.
All,
Below are the Winlink instructions for the FEMA RECCWG Region 4 & Region 6 May 31-June 1 Communications Outage Exercise. In addition to Winlink (SHARES and amateur radio) providing a Field Situation Report with “ground Truth” information over VHF/UHF/HF radio or Telnet, FYI, the following will also be exercised by the various States in these two Regions with FEMA: FNARS (FEMA National Emergency Radio System), NAWAS (National Warning System), MSAT G2 (Multi-State Satellite talk groups), Multi-State linking of P25 Trunking Networks.
The Task for Winlink is directed and simple:
Below is the starting scenario for this May 31- June 1 exercise. The cities circled on the attached map will have a “communications outage.” However, they will need “ground truth” information from everywhere within these two FEMA Regions from the users of the Winlink Radio Email Network System, regardless of location within the Regions, or the reasons for the outages. There are two separate set of instructions for input data. If you are NOT in these affected metropolitan areas, you may configure and report specific configuration for the Field Situation Report per the instructions below. If you ARE located within these affected metropolitan areas, you are to report your outages on the Field Situation Report per the instructions below.
Cyber Attacked Cities: (see attached map)
Charlotte, NC
Dallas, TX
Miami, FL
Little Rock, AR
For the Winlink portion of this FEMA R4-R6 Communications Outage Exercise, there are two groups participating:
– CISA SHARES Winlink from member agencies & other users within these two FEMA Regions over the DHS Winlink SHARES HF/VHF Network.
– Amateur Radio Winlink from any source with a proper license within these two FEMA Regions sending the data over the HF/VHF/UHF Amateur Spectrum.
If you have no radio and are not within one of these affected metro areas, you may use Telnet if you wish.
For the Amateur Radio Community, I am to leave the further distribution of this information to those copied as leaders over others within their span of control. The further distribution of this instruction is a part of the exercise. Please use whatever resources you have available.
Resulting data from the Winlink Field Situation Report will be accumulated and shown to the appropriate recipients as a spreadsheet item (via KML & CSV) for further use by anyone wishing to provide a dashboard, and visually to the named recipients as a mapped item in Winlink Express. The resulting list of exercise participants will be provided via a FORM 309.
Below are the instructions for participants.
– DATE and TIME of Exercise: Tuesday evening, May 31st, from 6:00 PM EDT until 4:00 PM EDT Wednesday afternoon, June 1st.
– Please, no telnet from areas where communications outage problems are shown to exist (Charlotte, Dallas, Miami, Little Rock – see attached map).
– Message to send: Winlink standard Template, Field Situation Report
– Please avoid requesting acknowledgement requests, either manually or automatically.
How to fill out the Field Situation Report:
1. Open Winlink Express (insure you have a most recent version, ie. 1.6.4 or higher, Template Version 1.0.193.0 or higher.) *
2. Open “New Message” form. (First ICON in menu).
3. On New Message Form, look for “Select Template” menu. Choose “Select Template.”
4. Double click on “Standard Templates”
5. Choose “Mapping GIS Forms.”
6. Choose “Field Situation Report.txt”
7. Your browser should open with the HTML Form.
8. If you are NOT in one of the UNAFFECTED areas, fill out the form per info below:
a. PRECEDENCE (R) Routine
b. Date Time, Task as 1.0.
c. To: NCS415; NCS396; NNE6EM (separate addresses with semi-colon).
d. On Form:
#1: NO.
#2. your City, County, State, and Territory put either FEMA R4 (TN, KY, MS, FL, GA, AL, NC, SC) or FEMA R6 (TX, AR, LA, NM, OK).
#3Put in Coordinates using degree decimal format, DD.DDDD . Example: LAT: 36.0703 LON: –86.8241, which is the correct format.
(If you cannot provide coordinates per above, then put in your Grid Square, and they will be approximated from your Winlink Express settings.)
Incorrect format would be LAT: 36º 4’13”N LON: 86º 49’ 27”W
Put in your Grid Square.
#4. YES
#5. YES
#6. YES
#7. YES
#8. YES
#9. YES
#10.YES
#11.YES
#12. Please state, “EXERCISE, EXERCISE EXERCISE”
#13 Name, call sign.
If any of the above conditions are actually out of service, please follow this instruction, regardless.
9. If you ARE in one of the AFFECTED areas (i.e. Charlotte, Dallas, Miami, Little Rock), then please fill out the Field Situation Report per below:
a. PRECEDENCE (P) Priority
b. Date Time, Task as 1.0.
c. To: NCS415; NCS396; NNE6EM (separate addresses with semi-colon).
d. On Form:
#1: NO.
#2. your City, County, State, and for “Territory” put either FEMA R4 (TN, KY, MS, FL, GA, AL, NC, SC) or FEMA R6 (TX, AR, LA, NM, OK).
#3. Put in Coordinates using decimal format . Example: LAT: 36.0703 LON: -86.8241, which is the correct format. Very IMPORTANT!’
(If you cannot provide coordinates per above, then put in your Grid Square, and they will be approximated from your Winlink Express settings.)
Incorrect format would be LAT: 36º 4’13”N LON: 86º 49’ 27”W
Put in your Grid Square.
#4. NO POTS or VOIP
#5. NO
#6. YES
#7. YES
#8. YES
#9. YES
#10. NO
#11. YES
#12. Please state, “EXERCISE, EXERCISE EXERCISE”
#13 Name, call sign, cell number (optional)
10. Check your information and then “submit” the form.
11. If not done automatically, then close your browser.
12. Post the message to the Winlink Express Outbox.
13. Send Message with whatever mode you choose!
If you are not in one of the affected areas, you may decide to use Telnet Winlink. In a “real life situation,” you would always want to use Telnet if it is available in order to leave the precious RF spectrum for those in affected areas who have no other choice, However, for this exercise, do what you wish since this is for practicing your ability to use Winlink in an emergency condition.